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Friday, February 6, 2015

Hi friends, today I am sharing a review on the book Orphans of the Storm by Ravi Dhar.

Ravi Dhar has a PhD in English from the North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India and is a well traveled man. Orphans of the Storm shows you glimpses of different states of India as it takes you from the Kashmir valley to the migrant camps of Jammu, from Nagaland to the city of Delhi.

The novel talks about the life of Kashmiri Pundits and specifically of Siddharth the protagonist. Ravi Dhar is a Kashmiri Pundit himself and the plot surely reflects touches his own experiences woven in.

Orphans of the Storm starts off on a very sad note, I had a hard time getting through the first few pages. Siddharth is left devastated when his entire family is torn out of the Kashmir valley due to the militant attacks. While his sister is raped and battered to pieces, his mother and younger sister are left in shock after being beaten badly. His brother is missing and his father, the most reputed in his place, loses everything and is finally forced to move out to the camps in Jammu.

Siddharth works hard educating himself while at the same time trying to help his father build up a means of living from scratch. Siddharth moves to Nagaland after getting selected as a lecturer at the state university. The story moves on with bits of love and heartbreak thrown in. And then the murder of the Dean change Siddharth's life for good. With a ray of hope he finally moves to Delhi and the story ends with a happy ever after beginning as he finds the love of his life.